Baby Mine Part 21

"Another!" shrieked Jimmy. "See here, you two can't be changing babies every five minutes without Alfred knowing it. Even HE has SOME sense."

"Nonsense!" answered Aggie shortly. "You know perfectly well that all young babies look just alike. Their own mothers couldn't tell them apart, if it weren't for their clothes."

"But where can we GET another?" asked Zoie.

Before Aggie could answer, Alfred was again heard calling from the next room. Apparently all his anger had subsided, for he inquired in the most amiable tone as to what baby might be doing and how he might be feeling.

Aggie crossed quickly to the door, and sweetly rea.s.sured the anxious father, then she closed the door softly and turned to Zoie and Jimmy with a new inspiration lighting her face. "I have it," she exclaimed ecstatically.

Jimmy regarded his spouse with grave suspicion.

"Now see here," he objected, "every time YOU 'HAVE IT,' I DO IT. The NEXT time you 'HAVE IT' YOU DO IT!"

The emphasis with which Jimmy made his declaration deserved consideration, but to his amazement it was entirely ignored by both women. Hopping quickly out of bed, without even glancing in his direction, Zoie gave her entire attention to Aggie. "What is it?" she asked eagerly.

"There must be OTHER babies' Homes," said Aggie, and she glanced at Jimmy from her superior height.

"They aren't open all night like corner drug stores," growled Jimmy.

"Well, they ought to be," decided Zoie.

"And surely," argued Aggie, "in an extraordinary case--like----"

"This was an 'extraordinary case,'" declared Jimmy, "and you saw what happened this time, and the Superintendent is a friend of mine--at least he WAS a friend of mine." And with that Jimmy sat himself down on the far corner of the couch and proceeded to ruminate on the havoc that these two women had wrought in his once tranquil life.

Zoie gazed at Jimmy in deep disgust; her friend Aggie had made an excellent suggestion, and instead of acting upon it with alacrity, here sat Jimmy sulking like a stubborn child.

"I suppose," said Zoie, as her eyebrows a.s.sumed a bored angle, "there are SOME babies in the world outside of Children's Homes."

"Of course," was Aggie's enthusiastic rejoinder; "there's one born every minute."

"But I was born BETWEEN minutes," protested Jimmy.

"Who's talking about you?" snapped Zoie.

Again Aggie exclaimed that she "had it."

"She's got it twice as bad," groaned Jimmy, and he wondered what new form her persecution of him was about to take.

"Where is the morning paper?" asked Aggie, excitedly.

"We can't advertise NOW," protested Zoie. "It's too late for that."

"s.h.!.+ s.h.!.+" answered Aggie, as she s.n.a.t.c.hed the paper quickly from the table and began running her eyes up and down its third page.

"Married--married," she murmured, and then with delight she found the half column for which she was searching. "Born," she exclaimed triumphantly. "Here we are! Get a pencil, Zoie, and we'll take down all the new ones."

"Of course," agreed Zoie, clapping her hands in glee, "and Jimmy can get a taxi and look them right up."

"Oh, CAN he?" shouted Jimmy as he rose with clenched fists. "Now you two, see here----"

Before Jimmy could complete his threat, there was a sharp ring of the door bell. He looked at the two women inquiringly.

"It's the mother," cried Zoie in a hoa.r.s.e whisper.

"The mother!" repeated Jimmy in terror and he glanced uncertainly from one door to the other.

"Cover up the baby!" called Zoie, and drawing Jimmy's overcoat quickly from his arm, Aggie threw it hurriedly over the cradle.

For an instant Jimmy remained motionless in the centre of the room, hatless, coatless, and shorn of ideas. A loud knock on the door decided him and he sank with trembling knees behind the nearest armchair, just as Zoie made a flying leap into the bed and prepared to draw the cover over her head.

The knock was repeated and Aggie signalled to Zoie to answer it.

"Come in!" called Zoie very faintly.

CHAPTER XIX

From his hiding-place Jimmy peeped around the edge of the armchair and saw what seemed to be a large clothes basket entering the room. Closer inspection revealed the small figure of Maggie, the washerwoman's daughter, propelling the basket, which was piled high with freshly laundered clothing. Jimmy drew a long sigh of relief, and unknotted his cramped limbs.

"Shall I lay the things on the sofa, mum?" asked Maggie as she placed her basket on the floor and waited for Zoie's instructions.

"Yes, please," answered Zoie, too exhausted for further comment.

Taking the laundry piece by piece from the basket, Maggie made excuses for its delay, while she placed it on the couch. Deaf to Maggie's chatter, Zoie lay back languidly on her pillows; but she soon heard something that lifted her straight up in bed.

"Me mother is sorry she had to kape you waitin' this week," said Maggie over her shoulder; "but we've got twins at OUR house."

"Twins!" echoed Zoie and Aggie simultaneously. Then together they stared at Maggie as though she had been dropped from another world.

Finding attention temporarily diverted from himself, Jimmy had begun to rearrange both his mind and his cravat when he felt rather than saw that his two persecutors were regarding him with a steady, determined gaze.

In spite of himself, Jimmy raised his eyes to theirs.

"Twins!" was their laconic answer.

Now, Jimmy had heard Maggie's announcement about the bountiful supply of offspring lately arrived at her house, but not until he caught the fanatical gleam in the eyes of his companions did he understand the part they meant him to play in their next adventure. He waited for no explanation--he bolted toward the door.

"Wait, Jimmy," commanded Aggie. But it was not until she had laid firm hold of him that he waited.

Surprised by such strange behaviour on the part of those whom she considered her superiors, Maggie looked first at Aggie, then at Jimmy, then at Zoie, uncertain whether to go or to stay.

"Anythin' to go back, mum?" she stammered.

Zoie stared at Maggie solemnly from across the foot of the bed.

"Maggie," she asked in a deep, sepulchral tone, "where do you live?"

"Just around the corner on High Street, mum," gasped Maggie. Then, keeping her eyes fixed uneasily on Zoie she picked up her basket and backed cautiously toward the door.

"Wait!" commanded Zoie; and Maggie paused, one foot in mid-air. "Wait in the hall," said Zoie.